Queen Macbeth
Darkland Tales
-
- $8.99
Publisher Description
Shakespeare fed us the myth of the Macbeths as murderous conspirators. But now Val McDermid drags the truth out of the shadows, exposing the patriarchal prejudices of history.
A thousand years ago in an ancient Scottish landscape, a woman is on the run with her three companions – a healer, a weaver and a seer. The men hunting her will kill her – because she is the only one who stands between them and their violent ambition. She is no lady: she is the first queen of Scotland, married to a king called Macbeth.
As the net closes in, we discover a tale of passion, forced marriage, bloody massacre and the harsh realities of medieval Scotland. At the heart of it is one strong, charismatic woman, who survived loss and jeopardy to outwit the endless plotting of a string of ruthless and power-hungry men. Her struggle won her a country. But now it could cost her life.
Part of Polygon's DARKLAND TALES series.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Scottish crime writer McDermid (the Karen Pirie series) provides a middling origin story for Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth, who was inspired by real-life medieval Scottish queen Gruoch. Following Macbeth's slaying of King Duncan in battle, rival armies rampage across the countryside. Meanwhile, Gruoch hides behind enemy lines with her three handmaidens. The women, aided by a soldier, drug a monk and frame him for murder before making their escape, which is cut short when they fall into the clutches of rival thane Macduff. As Gruoch draws upon her wits to save the lives of her loyalists, McDermid intercuts the action with flashbacks to Gruoch's first encounter with Macbeth, when she was the wife of a ruling chieftain and recognized in Macbeth her equal in treachery. McDermid hews close to the historical record, but the numb dialogue and melodramatic love affairs never threaten to touch Shakespeare's version of the story. As one of the handmaidens flatly observes, "It's not just the act that matters, it's the atmosphere." This falls short.
